Cruise control failure on the 2005 Toyota Avalon
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When cruise control failure gets reported
There are 9 reports of cruise control failure on the 2005 Toyota Avalon, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 32,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 1,800 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 22; the 2005 has 9. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
With cruise control (cc) on, between about 30 & 70 MPH, on inclines that cause a speed decrease of 3+ MPH, car downshifts more than the normal 1 gear, & surges ahead quite violently, with large RPM increases, to 3+ MPH above that set, then slowly settles to the set speed. With the cruise control set at 70 MPH on a level interstate, I slowed to 60 MPH & set the "resume" function; it downshifted once, accelerating normally, until, @ 64 MPH, downshifted again, more than one more gear & surged violently ahead, up about 3000 RPM & to 72-73 MPH before returning to 5th gear, & slowing to 70 MPH. The rapid increases are startling to all occupants, and could cause a loss of control, and the often rapid braking to maintain control, a real challenge for the tailgater behind on a cell phone! Downhill, with cruise control on, it usually, but not always, speeds up excessively; more than with cruise control off. It usually acts normal on flat roads, and, except as stated, on high speed highways with gradual inclines. With cruise control off, none of these abnormal things happen. When the dealers shop foreman had me test drive a 2006 with him as…
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 toyota avalon. The contact stated that when the cruise control activated it surged automatically and then level ed off two gears. The failure gave the impression that the vehicle lost control. While driving in light rain at 50 MPH the cruise control caused the vehicle's front wheels to spin. Toyota stated that the failure was caused by a programming failure that needed to be repaired. The current mileage is 242,000 , and failure mileage was 3,000.*ak
While en route from san juan to ponce, pr, I decided to use the cruise control on my toyota avalon 2005. It worked very well, until I decided to use the resume speed option of the cruise control. As soon as the resume movement was activated, the car accelerated suddenly and lunged forward at an unbelievable rate of speed that scared us, and I had to depress the brake pedal to disengage the resume option. This occurred twice and then I opted for not using the cruise control at all. Recently my car was serviced at furiel toyota dealer here in ponce, where the recall requirements for the accelerator and oil hose were completed. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Avalon
Other speed control problem
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Other engine problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does cruise control failure happen on the 2005 Toyota Avalon?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2005 Toyota Avalon?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed